2008 Rotary caging playoffs schedule reset

Citing errors in the final team standings, organizers of the 2008 Saipan Rotary Club Youth Basketball League decided to reschedule the start of the playoffs in the 18-and-under caging to Monday.

Games in the playoff round were supposed to begin last night with the CNMI Junior Nationals facing the Chalan Kanoa Saints in the first match, and the San Antonio Sixers meeting the Kontenders.

The Junior Nationals finished on top of the nine-team field with their clean 8-0 record and was paired with the last seeded team in the playoffs.

But Basketball Association of Northern Mariana Islands president Elias Rangamar said there were corrections in the final standings thus changes in the playoffs pairings should be made.

“We apologize for the mistakes and for the inconvenience the changes had caused the teams. To settle everything, we decided to start the playoffs on Monday,” Rangamar said.

The Junior Nationals and the Sixers will still be the top two seeded teams, but will be facing new foes.

Instead of the Chalan Kanoa Saints, the Junior Nationals will be paired with the Southern Sonics for the Game 1 in the playoffs on Monday at 5:30pm.

The Saints, who placed eighth in the earlier final standings released by organizers, moved up to seventh place and will be squaring off with the No. 2-ranked Sixers in Game 2, also on Monday (Oct. 27) at 7pm.

The Rollers I and the G-Stars finished with identical 5-3 records, but the former got to keep the No. 3 spot after beating the latter in the regular season.

The Rollers I will be paired with the Suns, who went down from fifth to sixth place. The Suns-Rollers I tiff is set for Game 3 on Tuesday (Oct. 28) at 5:30pm.

The G-Stars will play in Game 4 on Thursday (Oct. 30) against the Kontenders, who moved up from seventh to fifth place. The Kontenders and the Suns had identical 3-5 records in the regular season, but the former won in the tiebreak, having beaten the latter in the elimination round.

The playoffs will have a single-elimination format with the winner of Games 1 and 4 dueling for the first finals seat on Nov. 3 at 5:30pm, and the victor of the Games 3 and 4 battling for the second finals berth at 7pm.

The title and consolation matches will be played on Nov. 4. The battle for third place is set for 5:30pm, while the championship game is scheduled for 7pm.